Daily Sparring (II)

Liu Ziyun around, facing the direction from which Shinji Hirako's voice came. "Hirako, come down and fight me. Let me teach you what truly effective sparring is."

Shinji Hirako's breathing rhythm changed noticeably—a sign of tension. "This isn't good... You just went through such intense training yesterday, your body hasn't fully recovered yet..."

"What are you feeling guilty about?" Liu Ziyun interrupted him directly. "Get down here right now. You know I'm blind—maybe this way your Shikai might be of some use, okay? Hurry up, stop dawdling. You're not a young lady who needs me to beg you three times."

"Uh..." Shinji Hirako was speechless, and could only sigh helplessly as he walked to the center of the training field.

Liu Ziyun drew his Zanpakuto from his waist. The blade gleamed with a dark red luster in the morning light. Although he couldn't see it himself, the subtle sound of the blade rubbing against the air and the Reiatsu fluctuations emanating from the blade were crystal clear to him.

He didn't immediately release the knife, but instead held it horizontally in front of his chest and whispered:

" To Existence Is to Change Fate."

"Life-Taker."

The blade changed. The dark red light became deeper, golden patterns appeared on the blade, and the entire blade exuded a sacred yet dangerous aura— Liu Ziyun could accurately perceive these changes through fluctuations in Reiatsu.

He gripped the Complete Shikai Life-Taker, Tatsumi, and gently flicked the blade, feeling the sensation of the blade cutting through the air.

"I've been blind for nearly a hundred years," Liu Ziyun, looking in the direction of Shinji Hirako, a complex smile playing on his lips. "So your Sakanade was useless against me to begin with. But you should thank me properly—after all, I gave you a fair chance to fight, instead of directly using a form like Tulu that specifically counters visual abilities."

He paused, then continued, "So next, I hope you can demonstrate some real skill so I can 'feel' it. After all... this is an opportunity I earned through fairness."

Shinji Hirako's breathing became more rapid. He could sense that Liu Ziyun was serious this time—not with the almost playful attitude of yesterday, but with a genuine seriousness aimed at "teaching".

He took a deep breath and drew his Zanpakuto.

"Fall down--"

Shinji Hirako's voice echoed in the training ground, carrying a unique sense of rhythm.

"Sakanade."

A faint, cherry blossom-like fragrance filled the air. It was the sign of the Sakanade Shikai – using both fragrance and sight to disorient the enemy.

Liu Ziyun sniffed the fragrance in the air, then nodded. "It smells pretty good. But Hirako, what use is fragrance to a blind man? I can't even see things, why would I care about direction?"

The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly turned around, raising the Life-Taker weapon in his hand.

"Clang--!"

A loud clang of metal clashing. Shinji Hirako's blade was firmly blocked—even though, in Liu Ziyun's perception, Shinji Hirako's Reiatsu was clearly approaching from another direction.

"Look," Liu Ziyun said calmly, maintaining his blocking stance, "The battle against Soul Reaper isn't just about eyesight and direction. Take Kensei's former subordinate—what was his name again? Oh, right, it was Kaname Tōsen. Do you think your move will work on him? Would a blind man care if his vision is reversed?"

With a flick of his wrist, he deflected Shinji Hirako's sword. "If you're going to train, you should train until you can reverse your opponent's spiritual perception. Make the enemy feel confused even about the flow of Reiatsu, and make their intuition go astray. That's the true 'reversal'."

Shinji Hirako leaped backward, his footsteps making a clear sound as they scraped against the ground. Liu Ziyun could "hear" his location and "sense" the fluctuations in his Reiatsu.

"A reversal of spiritual perception... How is that possible?" Shinji Hirako's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Why is it impossible?" Liu Ziyun retorted. "Your Zanpakuto ability is 'Inversion,' so why can it only invert sight? Why can't it invert hearing, touch, or smell? Why can't it invert Reiatsu perception, killing intent perception, or danger perception? Is it that your Zanpakuto can't do it, or have you never even considered developing it in this direction?"

These words struck Shinji Hirako stunned.

He had never imagined that the ability to Sakanade could be developed in this way. Over the years, he had been content with the effect of visual inversion and had never tried to extend it to other senses.

"I..." Shinji Hirako opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

"Stop with the 'I-I-I'." Liu Ziyun his hand. "Come on, keep fighting. Let me 'hear' how much strength you can unleash in actual combat."

Shinji Hirako gritted his teeth and charged forward again. This time, he no longer relied on the visual inversion of the Sakanade —because he knew that it was useless against Liu Ziyun —but instead combined Shunpo, Zanjutsu, and hand-to -Hakuda combat, trying to gain an advantage through skill and speed.

His footsteps moved quickly across the ground, making a sharp, hurried sound. The blade sliced through the air, creating a whistling sound. The angle of each attack changed, and the trajectory of each movement was adjusted—he was trying to confuse Liu Ziyun with speed and change.

But Liu Ziyun remained calm and composed. He stood still, without even moving a step, simply parrying each attack with Life-Taker precision. The clash of blades produced a dense metallic clang that echoed throughout the training ground.

Liu Ziyun's ears twitched slightly. He was "listening"—listening to Shinji Hirako's breathing, his footsteps, the sound of blades cutting through the air, the rustling of clothes. All the sounds constructed a clear picture in his mind, allowing him to accurately judge the trajectory of each attack.

After several rounds, Shinji Hirako had several shallow wounds on his body—though not deep, each one precisely avoided vital points, yet was painful enough that he could not ignore them.

"Is this all your Zanpakuto can do?" Liu Ziyun asked while parrying. "Can't you control it so that I'm affected by your abilities one moment and back to normal the next? Switching like that might cause me some trouble. Is it that you can't think of it, or that you simply can't control it?"

Shinji Hirako leaped backward again, his footsteps slightly disordered. "Um... I really can't do that. But... it's definitely not something I didn't think of!"

"Alright, I know you're stupid," Liu Ziyun bluntly exposed. "So stop explaining. Put on your Visored and use all your techniques— Cero, Kido, Kidō, Shunpo Sonído, and all your Zanjutsu —stop playing tricks here. In a real fight, who's going to fight you one move at a time?"

Having said that, he stopped playing defensively and instead launched an attack.